Jordanian families spend “more on cigarettes than food,” a World Health Organization official told FM station Radio al-Balad in Amman on Sunday. The kingdom has one of the highest rates of smokers in the world with 66% of males over 18 smoking cigarett…
Taliban finally reveal burial place of founder Mullah Omar
The Taliban on Sunday revealed the final resting place of the extremist movement’s founder, Mullah Omar, whose death and burial they kept secret for years. Rumours surrounding Omar’s health and whereabouts abounded after the Taliban were kicked out of …
Amplified prayer call ‘disturbs tourists’: Egypt ex-minister
Egypt should protect tourists from being disturbed by the Islamic call to prayer, top Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass has said. Speaking on Egypt’s Balad TV, Hawass questioned the need for amplifying the call to praye…
Nigeria gunmen free abducted children in northwest
Gunmen who abducted a group of children working on a farm in northwest Nigeria’s Katsina state have freed the hostages, the police said. Dozens of gunmen on motorcycles on Sunday last week seized children harvesting crops for a fee on a farm outside Ma…
Three killed after plane plunges into Lake Victoria in Tanzania
Three people died when a plane carrying dozens of passengers plunged into Lake Victoria in Tanzania on Sunday as it approached the northwestern city of Bukoba, the fire and rescue service said. Rescuers have pulled 26 survivors to safety after the Prec…
Netanyahu pieces together far-right coalition for government
Former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu began to piece together a potential coalition government on Sunday, after an array of far-right parties swept to a majority in the Knesset during this week’s elections against a backdrop of systematic violence again…
Iraq considers bringing back military conscription
Iraqi lawmakers were due on Sunday to examine a bill seeking to reestablish military conscription in the country, before the first reading was postponed. Service in the armed forces was mandatory in Iraq from 1935 up until 2003, when a US-led invasion …
Pope in Bahrain: Treatment of prisoners measure of society
Pope Francis wrapped up the first-ever papal trip to Bahrain on Sunday by encouraging priests and nuns to keep ministering to the Gulf kingdom’s tiny Catholic flock. He specifically mentioned its prisoners, saying “the way in which these ‘least ones’ a…
US backs two-state solution in call to Palestinian leader
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine issue in a phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said Saturday. The move came as Israel’s hawk…
COP27: What is ‘Loss and Damage’ compensation?
Nearly 200 countries gathering for the UN climate conference in Egypt are expected to lock horns over whether rich nations should pay compensation to vulnerable states hit by climate-fuelled disasters. The COP27 summit follows a year of such disasters,…